Franciscus MASSARIUS. Francisci Massarii Veneti In novum Plinii de naturali historia librum Castigationes & Annotationes. Quisquis de natura Aquatilium ac remotiore piscium cognitione edoceri cupis, hunc Massarij commentarium eme & lege. Admiraberis laborem ac ingeniu[m] hominis candidissimi, qui longè maximam operam in hijs indagandis, ut studiosi iuuarentur, insumpsit, Basileae, in officina Frobeniana, 1537

Prima edizione di questa rara opera, in un’affascinante rilegatura del tempo. La prefazione è dell’umanista e studioso tedesco Beatus Rhenanus (1485-1547). L’autore, assente dai maggiori repertori bio-bibliografic, incluso il Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, viene spesso confuso con il suo omonimo e quasi coevo Francesco Massari, tesoriere del Vaticano e persino con Girolamo Massari. “Even a traditional humanist like Beatus Rhenanus knew that in theory scientific texts rested on observation of the world, and in his preface to the edition of the Pliny commentary by Massaria based his praise of Massaria’s commentary on the commentator’s extensive travels, especially in the Near East, so that his work rested on personal experience and not just on book-learning. Even so, Beatus firmly restated his general principle that commentators must stick to the authority of the manuscripts, as in fact Massaria had done.” (Nauert, p. 83, footnote 51).